The West Chicago Garden Club

The two faces of January – One to look forward and one to look back.

Back: the Kruse House Gardeners estimate they collectively spent between 450 – 500 hours in the garden last year. Angie, Tom, Kerry, and Billie worked pretty much every Wednesday morning and Keith and Jan Grismore were there about half the time. Barbara Darrah is considering throwing her hat into the garden. We hope to see her regularly next year as well.

We maintained and beautified. Nothing exceptional, but the garden looked good all year. The GC held our June meeting in the garden, Gallery 200 sponsored an “art in the garden” event, and the Historical Society held their Ice Cream Social in the garden. The Saturday Kruse House Museum visitors enjoyed the garden and the neighbors, especially the condo dwellers, found pleasure in the garden as well.  The garden is a
casual sanctuary for an untold number of guests. The birds and the pollinators left notes thanking us for providing home and food for them as well.

Forward: April will be right along and we will again clean up the garden and meet the new year with enthusiasm. The “to do” list includes trimming shrubs and removing some of the mountain of yard waste that has accumulated along the east fence. That’s just for starters. Our planning is fluid so we’ll report progress as it develops.

— Billie Childress

     Most of the members of our club have visited the Kruse House at one time or another. While there are a great many wonderful plants and flowers to see, there is one area that gets passed by most of the time. And that are is our great herb garden.

     The herb garden is located on the East side of the garage in a very large wooden planter. The planter itself was donated by Billie and was made with planks from trees she had cut down on her property. There are different herbs in the planter from time to time so I thought it just might be interesting to take a look at a few of them.

     THYME, Thyme belongs in every herb garden. It is easy to grow and does well in pots. Gargling with thyme tea is excellent for treating bronchitis, sore throats, laryngitis and tonsillitis. This plant has been in our planter from the start and does very well.

     SAGE, Silvery green sage looks beautiful in the garden and it’s as beneficial as it is good looking. Sage tea is an old remedy for hot flashes and was used to reduce fever. Sage has been used for centuries to improve memory and cognition, and a number of studies have suggested that the herb has the potential to treat age-related memory deficits as well as attention disorders in children.

     Parsley, Yes parsley is more than just a garnish. Some say it is Mother Natures breath mint because fresh parsley is a very effective cure for halitosis. Parsley is a diuretic and parsley tea is recommended for treating and preventing urinary tract infections. Many people swear it also prevents and shrinks kidney stones, detoxes the liver and helps you lose weight Warm compresses of parsley tea are used as a treatment for sties and inflammation of the eyelids.

     So that’s my suggestions for the beginning herb Gardner. It’s amazing how many ailments you can treat using just the fresh leaves of different herbs. And since they are the same herbs you cook with, you know they are safe.

     As Henry David Thoreau once said “A man may esteem himself happy when that which is his food is also his medicine”.

     That’s it for now folks, see you at the potting party.

Happy Spring,
Tom

Driving up to his family’s cottage in Northwest Wisconsin, Darrah Beebe has often stopped at the Rest Area honoring Aldo Leopold and his pioneering Sand County Almanac. When it came time to choose a project for his Boy Scout Eagle Rank, his grandmother suggested that he build some of Leopold’s iconic benches.

Leopold designed his simple and comfortable bench during the first part of the twentieth century to create a place where people would pause to rest and contemplate nature. Trying to think of an appropriate place to put his project, Darrah immediately thought of the Kruse House Museum Garden in his home town of West Chicago. The house was built in 1917 and reflects the typical life of a railroad family at that time. The Kruse sisters, who donated the house to the people of West Chicago, were avid gardeners and the West Chicago Garden Club has established and maintained a public garden there in their honor. What better place to honor Leopold’s love of nature than in a quiet garden in the midst of a busy shopping area?

The garden club agreed to pay for the materials and Darrah and Troop 99 went to work. Now people can pause in this lovely garden (which was featured in The Secret Gardens of Chicago on HGTV) and and become part of Leopold’s vision of “harmony with the land”.